The saying goes that age is just a number, and these days when life expectancy is increasing this has never been truer. People are living longer and so are staying active for longer, meaning we are seeing a lot more of older drivers on the roads than before. Despite the unjustified stereotype of older drivers, with age comes a range of benefits, especially when it comes to your car insurance.
Older and wiser
A longer life means a lot more experience, so unless you’re a senior driver who has just passed their test, the chances are that you will have a lot more driving experience that most other road users. Younger drivers in the 17-24 age group usually have the highest premiums due to two main contributing factors; inexperience and lifestyle. If you’re lucky enough to have a clean claims history, you’ve stacked up a lot of years’ worth of No Claims Bonus/No Claims Discount (NCB/NCD). Most insurers put a cap of about five years on how much NCB you earn, which can give you the advantage of having a discount of up to 75 per cent on your car insurance premium. Experience pays off, and it’s something you have by the bucket-load.
Laid back lifestyle
There are many lifestyle factors that go into working out how much car insurance premium you pay each year, and as you get older you’ll be lucky enough to be able to dodge some of these factors. Let’s say that you’re in the over 60s age group. If you have children, it’s likely that they are grown up and have left the nest by now. This puts you in a better position when looking for car insurance as having children under 16 could increase your premium. This is due to the potential risk of a much more expensive claim if you had an accident with a child on board.
Also, you might be nearing retirement (although there is now no compulsory retirement age, you might still feel that it’s time to kick back and relax for a bit). This means that you will no longer be using your car for work purposes, so you can downgrade your cover from business class or community to social, domestic and pleasure (SD&P). Not using the car during rush hour and driving in line with a more laid back lifestyle marks you as a safer risk and so your premiums could decrease as a result.
Increased choice
Until very recently, drivers over the age of 80 could only choose from about 25 per cent of available car insurance policies. A few insurers have recently taken away their upper age limits, and if an insurer can’t offer you a car insurance policy due to your age, they will now point you towards the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA), which has a service dedicated to pointing older drivers in the right direction.
Older drivers have just as much a right to be on the roads as the rest of us, and being advanced in years certainly gives you some advantages that could save you some extra cash.
This guest post was written free of charge by Jamie Gibbs, the resident blogger for over 60s car insurance comparison site, Confused.com.
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